Page 24 - Use Your Memory

USE YOUR MEMORY
psychologists then mixed 100 photographs with the original 1000,
and asked the people to select those they had not seen the first
time through. Everyone, regardless of how he described his
normal memory, was able to identify almost every photograph he
had seen - as well as each one that he had not seen previously.
They were not necessarily able to remember the order in which
the photographs had been presented, but they could definitely
remember the image - an example that confirms the common
human experience of being better able to remember a face than
the name attached to it. This particular problem is easily dealt
with by applying the Memory Techniques.
10 The Memory Techniques
The Memory Techniques, or mnemonics, were a system of
'memory codes' that enabled people to remember perfectly what-
ever it was they wished to remember. Experiments with these
techniques have shown that if a person scores 9 out of 10 when
using such a technique, that same person will score 900 out of
1000, 9000 out of 10,000, 900,000 out of 1,000,000 and so on.
Similarly, one who scores perfectly out of 10 will score perfectly
out of 1,000,000. These techniques help us to delve into that
phenomenal storage capacity we have and to pull out whatever it is
that we need. The Basic Memory Principles are outlined in chapter
4, and the bulk of this book is devoted to explaining and outlining
the most important and useful of these systems, showing how
easily they can be learned, and how they can be applied in perso-
nal, family, business and community life.
At this early stage, however, it should be helpful for you to test
your memory in its current state. The following chapter provides a
series of memory tests that will form a foundation from which you
can check your progress. If you are interested in the truth about
yourself and your performance now, as compared with what it will
be when you have completed the book, perform these tests
thoroughly. Most people do rather poorly at the beginning and
almost perfectly at the end.

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